The Canadian in the playoffs | These international stars who wear the Sainte-Flanelle

From Snoop Dogg to Viggo Mortensen to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, many international stars have worn the Montreal Canadiens jersey over the decades. Sometimes out of love, sometimes out of calculation. Overview, as the CH continues its route in the series.

Two weeks ago at Les Foufs in Montreal, the drummer of the British rock group Dry Cleaning performed with a CH t-shirt on his back. This small gesture did not go unnoticed.

A month ago, during a show linked to the Eurovision contest, Moldovan singer Satoshi appeared on stage proudly wearing a modified jersey from the Montreal club.

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These two cases that have occurred in recent weeks are nothing new. Since the late 1960s, a number of international stars have worn a Canadian jersey, whether on stage or behind the scenes.

The most famous is probably David Gilmour. Unless I’m mistaken, the Pink Floyd guitarist gave a handful of concerts wearing the Habs jersey during the 1975 and 1977 tours. A few photos attest to this, including the one taken backstage at the Knebworth festival in 1975, where we can see the musician conversing with a horse (and musician Roy Harper)!

In this gallery of stars, Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart, of the group Grateful Dead, do not give their place. The two hippies are photographed backstage wearing the magic sweater during their concert on February 27, 1969 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. The cliché is so well known that the Etsy site now sells CH jerseys with the Grateful Dead skull logo!

Finally, some may have seen the image of John Lennon holding a Glorious vest. It was December 1969 at Château Champlain, while the Beatle was on his way to Ottawa to meet Pierre Elliott Trudeau. During the press conference, a young radio host handed him this typically Montreal gift.

In fact, the list is long. Over the years, international stars as diverse as Phil Collins with Genesis, Mika, Snoop Dogg, Greg Lake, Puff Daddy, Manny Charlton of the group Nazareth, jazzmen Elvin Jones and Billy Cobham and even Shania Twain sequin version, to name only the main ones, have draped themselves in the Sainte-Flanelle.

At the risk of disappointing Canadian fans, let us point out, however, that the phenomenon is not limited to Montreal. In the 1970s in particular, hockey jerseys were popular among rock musicians for several reasons.

Firstly: they were loose and airy, so perfect for a performance (even if many wore them tight!). Second: they flashed! As the site nss-sports.com explains, this period following the expansion into the NHL “marked a veritable explosion of colors, with the appearance of hues like purple, orange and green, which had never been seen before in the world of hockey.” Hockey is also the only sport where the jerseys have such massive logos, which adds to their “pop art” feel.

Last but not least reason: touring musicians were regularly given sweaters by the promoter or guys from local radio stations, and ended up making them into an accessory. “For me, it was a free stage costume,” explains Triumph guitarist Rick Emmett in a Facebook video.

This is how we will see Phil Collins wearing the jerseys of the Rangers, Kings and Minnesota North Stars; Rick Wakeman of Yes in Flyers jersey; Freddie Mercury or ABBA with that of the Maple Leafs, or even all the musicians of Carole King with that of the Blues at the Montreux festival, in 1973!

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Viggo et ses héros

No international star, however, has demonstrated his love of hockey as much as actor Viggo Mortensen. It’s no secret that Aragorn of Lord of the Rings has been a super fan of the Montreal Canadiens (and Guy Lafleur in particular) since his youth.

In his book The CH and its peoplethe journalist of the Gazette Brendan Kelly devotes a few pages to Viggo Mortensen’s obsession with the Glorious. It tells how the actor discovered Sainte-Flanelle in the 1970s while living in New York state, and how he has remained loyal to it ever since, taking advantage of every opportunity to make it known, whether by displaying the Canadian colors in the street, or unfurling a giant flag of the Montreal club in the middle of a film festival… in Toronto. “For him, it’s really a little boy’s passion,” sums up Brendan Kelly in an interview with The Press. He is on a mission, He wants to convince the world.”

But the trip by Viggo Mortensen is also very personal. Brendan Kelly says that during the filming of Lord of the Ringsthe actor sometimes wore a CH t-shirt under his Aragorn costume, as a form of superstition. “He says he did it to give himself strength. The strength of the Canadian! » Unlike many stars, the actor would also be very aware of the symbolic importance of the CH. “He knows what it means for French Canadians,” sums up the journalist.

In 2009, Mortensen lived a childhood dream when he was invited to present his idol Guy Lafleur at the Bell Center, for the Canadian’s centennial. If we understand correctly, he continues to follow the club closely and he is perfectly aware of the existence of Dobe, Demidov, Suzuki and co. The subject is so close to his heart that he agreed to receive Brendan Kelly at his home in Madrid to talk about CH for an hour and a half! He was so enthusiastic that after the interview, he even cooked a meal for the journalist and his team. The menu? “Soup, salad, Spanish quiche, wine,” says the journalist. “There are worse things.